The weekend before last, two of the four points-carrying Kentucky Derby (G1) trials went to horses bred in Pennsylvania and Florida. On the most recent weekend, both points-paying Derby or Kentucky Oaks (G1) trials went to regional-breds, with Iowa-bred No More Time annexing the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) while the Las Virgenes Stakes (G3) fell to New York-bred Kinza (who didn’t earn any Oaks qualifying points because she is trained by Bob Baffert).
Kinza realized just $17,000 as a weanling, and $30,000 as a yearling, but she must have cut a far more impressive figure at the Fasig-Tipton Timonium May Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, where she was knocked down for $350,000 to Donato Lanni, acting for Michael Lund Petersen.
That Kinza may have may been well bought was apparent from her debut Dec. 29, when she sped home 7 1/2 lengths clear in a six-furlong maiden special weight at Santa Anita Park. The Las Virgenes Stakes (G3) was only her second start and she took the initiative from the start, repelled a challenge from the highly rated Kopion , and edged clear by two lengths.
As one might suspect from her sales prices as a weanling and yearling, Kinza doesn’t have the most fashionable of pedigrees. Her sire, Carpe Diem , was a talented and well-bred runner but has made less of an impact as a sire than his performance and pedigree would have suggested. A $550,000 yearling, and by Giant’s Causeway out of an Unbridled’s Song mare, Carpe Diem won two of three starts at 2, including the Breeders’ Futurity (G1), which he took by 6 1/4 lengths, and finished second to the upsetting Texas Red in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). Successful in the Tampa Bay Derby (G2) and Blue Grass Stakes (G1) in his first two starts at 3, Carpe Diem could only finish 10th in the Kentucky Derby. Subsequently, Carpe Diem was found to have a chip in a knee and was retired to begin the his stud career at WinStar Farm for the following season (2016). He moved to Acadiana Equine at Copper Crowne in Louisiana in 2022 and then in 2023 to Aztec Equine in the same state.
As might be intuited from his move from Kentucky, Carpe Diem did not make too many waves with his early runners. There were six stakes winners in his first two crops, but none graded. His third crop was better, with five black-type scorers, including his first North American graded winner, Angel Nadeshiko , successful in the Robert J. Frankel Stakes (G3), and Avya d’Or, a grade 3 scorer in Chile, but there was just one stakes winner in Carpe Diem’s fourth crop, and Kinza is his sole black-type horse from 24 foals in his fifth crop.
Carpe Diem
Kinza’s dam, Secret Wonder, does introduce some commerciality into the pedigree, as she is a daughter of Quality Road , a brilliant racehorse, an outstanding sire, and now a highly promising broodmare sire. That said, at the track Secret Wonder was not one of her sire’s more notable performers. She didn’t start until October of her 3-year-old season, when she ran off the board in maiden-claiming company, and her sole victory came as a 5-year-old, when in her fifth and final start she took a maiden event at Delta Downs, where she was entered to be claimed for $10,000.
Secret Wonder is half sister to just a single black-type placed performer. Secret Wonder’s dam, Maxinkuckee Miss, was a 2-year-old winner and also took third in the Junior Champion Stakes at Monmouth Park at that age. By Langfuhr, Maxinkuckee Miss is closely related to the listed placed Winiliscious (by Langfuhr’s son Lawyer Ron), the dam of minor stakes winner My Beautiful Belle and Lil Miss Moppet. Maxinkuckee Miss is also half sister to the Cozzene mare Winikins, dam of the Robert G. Dick Memorial stakes (G3) and Dowager Stakes (G3) scorer Gentle Ruler.
Kinza’s third dam, Wini Jones, is a winning daughter of Seeking the Gold out of stakes winner Coesse Express, and is a sister to the stakes producer Coesse Gold, and half sister to the San Vicente Breeders’ Cup (G3) victor Fly’n J. Bryan. The sixth dam, Levee Night, captured the Golden Rod Stakes and Apple Blossom Handicap, and had the distinction of being the first mare offered at auction in foal to Secretariat, realizing $225,000 at the 1974 Keeneland November Sales.
Levee Night’s own third dam, Cosmopolite, was a sister to the Sunset Handicap and Santa Anita Maturity winner Great Circle, and closely related to the exceptional Californian mare Honeymoon, who among achievements numbered wins against males in the Hollywood Derby and Cinema Handicap at 3. Cosmopolite’s dam, the Sequoia Stakes scorer Hemisphere, was closely related to an even more distinguished performer in Whirlaway, Horse of the Year and winner of the Triple Crown in 1941. Another close relative to Hemisphere, Whirlaway’s sister Whirl Right, appears as the fourth dam of Conquistador Cielo, Horse of the Year and champion 3-Year-Old Male in 1982.
Kinza is one of eight stakes winners by Giant’s Causeway and sons out of mares by Elusive Quality line mares, the best of the others being Castle Lady. Here we’ll also note that the dam of Kinza’s sire, Carpe Diem, is an extended Mr. Prospector/Danzig cross, as is Kinza’s dam, Secret Wonder.
